court of lies | robert's rebellion

the lost stars

"after a lifetime of darkness, I want to love something behind that is made of light"

276 AC, Starfall

Five years ago...

She was sitting in front of the lake, mindlessly listening to the sound of the waves, until she heard the noise of the brushes. Turning to her back, but not alarmed, she was expecting to see one of her brothers or little Allyria -or one of her mother's maids because she forgot the time again.

She was not expecting to see him.

First her purple eyes widened with shock and her lips parted. She had to blink a few times to make sure the sun did not get into her head and he, in fact, was real. Slowly standing up with shaky legs, she let out a dry but surprised chuckle that could turn into a loud cry in any given moment.

There he was standing in brown leather and white shirt, looking as handsome as Ashara remembered. Looking at her with his black eyes, smiling under the sun that made him look like the princes of old.

"You have returned.", she managed to say. Exctiement and happiness turning into anger and frustration with every passing second that her brain grasped more and more he was here.

After all this time and without a word.

He took a few steps towards her direction as well, they were standing close now -not close enough to touch but his breath still fell on her face. "I have.", he said with a smile he couldn't contained, his eyes somehow felt like he was telling the truth but there was no way to be sure, not with him.

Ashara smiled momentarily but it felt wrong and her lips trmbled. To take a deep breath, she bowed her head down and gritted her teeth. When she raised her head once more, hit him across the face as hard as she could and Oberyn stumbled back with shock.

"You have went to battle.", she said with a tearful anger. "I feared so much that something happened to you. You have written no words, sent no news. I thought you were dead, Oberyn.", she still was shaking with anger. "Not even Elia heard about you. Not even Arthur did."

"You don't need to get sad anymore.", Oberyn turned to her again, raised his hand to cup her face. "I am here now-", but Ashara pushed his hand down and took a step back. "Ash...", he sighed. "Don't be like this. Have you not missed me at all?"

She let out a loud 'hah' voice. "I don't need to be sad anymore is that so?", her voice shattered. "I have waited for you.", she pouted as tears filled her eyes properly. "For days, weeks, moons...", she shook her head. "But you didn't come back to me.", she took another step back when Oberyn tried his chance once more. "Elia even joked, in order to calm her nerves, that you have found yet another paramour, followed her across the world.", like he has done so with Nymeria's mother. Ashara did not even feel the need to know her name. "I have cried myself to sleep for days. I thought you have forgotten me. I thought I shouldn't wait for you.", her face softened. "But I did."

"Did you truly loved me this much?", Oberyn whispered.

Ashara snorted with realization. "It is true.", she took a deep breath to calm herself down but it was pointless. She did not possess any patience for Oberyn, not anymore. "I haven't even cross your mind, not even once! Everything you have said to me before you went off... They all were lies, no?", she tried to walk next to him, go to the castle, to her room and cry for eternity but Oberyn grasped her arm.

"Do not believe to anything you have heard about me.", he whispered to her ear as they stood side by side, his finger caressing the bare flesh of her arm. "Learn them yourself-"